Molton Brown invests in technology to improve stock accuracy

Luxury bath and fragrance products brand Molton Brown is using new retail technology to manage stock levels across its business.

The brand has chosen Datalogic’s Memor mobile computer for the job, after identifying inefficiencies with its previously used third-party auditing system.

Molton Brown is rolling out the technology across its network of 58 independent stores in the UK, Ireland and the US, as well as selected concessions. It has a presence in around 15 department stores.

Bhavesh Patel, technical application leader at Molton Brown, said: “The consensus from the business was that the third-party audits of our stock were not as accurate as they needed to be and as they were only conducted annually, resulted in poor visibility of stock levels for a long period of time.”

Initial discussions around a solution to Molton Brown’s problem began with Datalogic partner, Mobile Data Collection (MDC), which ended up writing the bespoke software required for the business during the subsequent deployment.

Patel said the technology is set to be used by the business in the long term, and he described it as a “durable device that wasn’t too bulky and comfortable to use for scanning during stock take periods”.

Some 143 devices and 72 cradles have been rolled out by the business, and there are now plans to implement a point of sale upgrade that will enable the devices to be used as part of the product returns process.

“Maintaining an accurate stock record and having top level visibility of stock availability can pose enormous challenges for retailers, particularly those that have a vast number of SKUs for similar product lines,” explained Jamie Dickinson, retail sales director for the UK and Ireland at Datalogic.